Responses
THIS!
all she knows is anger and abuse, and him having outbursts because he's worried or stressed doesn't help the situation.
They both need to communicate, but I get why it's taking them so long to. They both have their own sides of the story, and they're nervous and new to marriage and don't have much reason to suspect it's miscommunication.
Riftan just thinks she's somewhat spoiled and haughty. And she just assumes that he doesn't like her and will beat her like her father did.
Love your analysis. I'm really excited to see how this plays out.
Like obviously Riftan doesn't understand her trauma and they're both so bad at communication that of course she's going to take all of this so badly. I personally think it's obvious that he's not angry at her, he's worried and upset that he came home to chaos and his love possibly endangered, but obviously that's because I'm on the outside looking in. I just can't wait for him to truly understand what her father did to her and how his anger can be misconstrued and cause her to fear him. But then I also think he needs to get better at controlling his emotions so that his worry doesn't come out as anger. Like I feel like men don't always get how their outbursts/anger can really traumatize women- though honestly they should. It's just heartbreaking, but something tells me that he'll change once he knows. He seems like that kind of guy. And I have a ~thing~ for love interests who seem scary to everyone but then get soft around their lovers <3